Everything you need to know about link building

So why aren’t they coming?

Perhaps it is because they don’t know about you.

That’s where link building comes into the mix.

Link Building Gone Wrong

In the early days, Marketers, would send links out in mass to secure higher rankings on Google and other search engines. Guess what? It worked. Thus, the rise of garbage content being offered on the search engines.

There was no thought given to quality, just rankings from quantity. Google wasn’t happy. They took aggressive action against this unwelcomed process which led to the fall of this blackhat marketing method.

“Backlinks Are Dead”

Soon you heard Marketer’s everywhere screaming about the death of backlinks. Such was not the case. It was the death of an unwelcomed process of backlinking but creating backlinks themselves was alive and well on planet Google.

However, I think I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. Are you wondering what a backlink is?

Good, you should. Especially if you are attempting to reach the world with your message. The typical concept of a backlink is that it is a link which leads from one property on the Web to another. It’s wrong and I’m about to expose the exact reason for that, keep reading.

The Traditional Use of Backlinks

Let’s say you created an article on yellow belly sapsuckers and have a Facebook fan page for this niche. Once the article is live on the Web you go to your fan page and post the link live. Tada! You have a backlink.

It leads from your Facebook fan page to your article on your blog or website. There are numerous other ways to create this type of backlinks. I’ll reveal some secret ingredients to the process very soon.

First, let me tell you another thing that Google hates about backlinks. People used to create several different properties and then link them together with spam type content.

No quality, just links.

It would look like this:

Site A links to site B

Site B links to site C

Site C links to site A

This was called a link wheel and back in the day it worked very powerfully. No more. Bye bye backlink?

Turning Up the Heat on Backlink Building Strategies

Not exactly. Not if you were really paying attention that is. The former type of link building was called external link building because it was outside of your main site. More on why this worked for a site that this structure wasn’t linked to in a minute.

What if you take this same concept and move it into your Website?

Talk about what Google falls in love with, this is it if it is done right. It would look like this:

Page A links to page B

Page B links to page C

Page C links to page A

Put all these pages within the same category on your site and receive even more appreciation from the Google gods.

Let’s say you have a core page that you really want to drive all your reader’s attention to. In-order to tell Google that every page of your website should have a link to that page. Unfortunately, that would not work by following the above process.

Are you out of luck? Not at all. This is where tiered linking fits into the equation.

Following the above strategy, you have yourself an internal link wheel to your site. Rinse and repeat and you will have many of these nuggets all through your site. I typically do this per 5 articles within a category.

The focal article is not part of this, or any link wheel. Instead each page of the link wheel you build points to its existence. Google will get the clear message that this is a critical page on your site and reward you accordingly.

Internal Tiered Link Wheel Supreme

Just when you thought we were done. We aren’t. In fact, there is a core missing ingredient called anchor text. What’s that?

The text a person uses to create the hyperlink from. There are a variety of ways to do this.

Naked URL: This happens when the hyperlink created is the actual URL itself.

Untargeted: When you hyperlink words like “click here” it is untargeted as long as the page you are leading people to doesn’t happen to be all about “click here”.

Targeted: Remember the Yellow Belly Sap Sucker example above? Linking those words to an article about the same would represent this idea.

So, which should you use? None.

Wait, what?

I recommend a combo approach instead. Staying with our example let’s say you have a sentence like this. Key components of the yellow belly sap sucker metabolism include.

Why not link that entire sentence within your link wheel or tiered concepts?

There are several advantages to this which include but are not limited to:

Your audience knows exactly what they will be receiving by the click.

You are linking the exact keyword phrase within the sentence.

The possibility of you building another internal anchor text exactly like this one is extremely remote.

Google loves all these attributes.

Most other people are not taking the time to do this type of structure. If you do, you will far exceed them when it boils down to the ranking wars.

Empowering Internal Outgoing One Way Link Strategy

Now that we have the power of internal tiered link wheels working for us were done, right?

Nope. Google wants to know that your site is an authority project and not just another drone of the same old thing. One way it can determine that this is the case is by who you link out to.

Wait. You don’t like out to anybody unless necessary? Bad idea.

I recommend at least 2 external links for a page that has 1000 words. More words on the page? Create more external links.

When Google arrives and sees this it will go bananas. Google on bananas is exactly what you are after. Where are, you going to find these at? Google. Just search for your keyword phrase and choose some of the top dogs for your term. Those will be the ones you link out to.

But, they’re my competition. Isn’t that a bad thing? Nope. Especially if you make sure that you include the target=”blank” concept within your link. Make sure that when people click on these links they open the other page while keeping your site available in the background.

What do you think your audience will think of you once they finish reading what Google thinks is awesome?

Here’s a hint – think total awesome!

A Word About Reciprocal Links

This could be an internal or external strategy. So, while in transition I thought a brief word should be said about this.

Unlike one way links, which we have been talking about so far, reciprocal links share the link love. Here’s what that looks like.

Site/Page A links to Site/Page B

Site/Page B links to Site/Page A

I don’t use or recommend this method. Google rewards one-way links so much more powerfully. Why bother?

Now, what I will do is create an article for an incoming link and then link to the site from a completely different article. This can indeed be done internally or externally. In my own practice, it is an external strategy and not one that I put a great deal of weight into.

Uncovering Methods for Building External Incoming One Way Links

We have now covered:

One way external incoming links.

Internal tiered link wheels.

Internal outgoing one-way links.

And even delved into concepts surrounding the power of proper keyword anchor text strategies.

What’s left?

Not much.

However, before we close I would like to briefly mention some great ways of building one way external incoming link power. First and foremost, would be sharing them on your own properties. Social networking, social bookmarking even free ad sites are great for this.

What about getting other people to gladly give you one way links into your site? That’s where concepts like guest blogging play their part.

I can’t say enough good about guest blogging. Yes, people try to misuse this so it has a bad rap. However, if you are providing high quality well-written content for the recipient it will be an open door of opportunity.Using this concept together with the other methods mentioned above I have taken my own site from nonexistent to preparing to break the 1 million mark on Alexa in less than 90 days.

Closing Thoughts About Building Your Backlink Strategy

Becoming a success on the Web is simply not as easy as it sounds. There is a ton of work and even more typing. However, if you follow principles like those listed above you will be surprised how fast results can happen. Link building strategy plays an important role in your SEO strategy in 2017

But wait. Before you go.

Tell me what I missed, or perhaps how you handle link building differently by leaving a comment below and together we will grow.

We welcome SEO experts to write for our audience. Now you can write for us and get published in Monetize.info magazine.

About Guy Siverson

Guy Siverson – Author, Blogger and Online Marketer. He has been a celebrated Online SEO Marketer since the early 90’s. Guy’s greatest joys are his family and friends as well as helping educate and inspire others by coaching and speaking engagements that target other people’s success in their own entrepreneurial careers.

Websites that are authority figures are not afraid to talk in a positive light about others in the field. It doesn’t always have to be a direct competitor. Maybe someone that offers a complimentary service.

The more Google sees you as an authority, the greater your rankings will be. If Google sees you as a Marketer, you get a strike against you.

I am not exactly clear on internal tiered linking. Do you have an article that deals with it more specifically? I would love to see an example, because I am just not understanding it from this article.

So that article was created specifically because of your request on this blog. Thank you for being interactively involved with the process. Readers that care to be involved is what defines success within the eyes of a blog.

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